We're back from Morocco. Our trip and the wedding were
so amazing I don't know how to boil it down to a few sentences. It
was a big deal. A sit-down dinner for 200 people, an 8 or 9-piece band blaring music, belly
dancing all night - professional and amateur, beautiful, colorful dresses, warm, loving family. We
don't have weddings anything like that here. The closest thing I can think of would be a
Mari Gras ball, with the bride and groom as king and queen.

The bride and groom arrived at the wedding about 9 pm and were greeted outside by lots of people,
tambourines and drums, and singing and chanting and were ushered inside in this
procession, and seated in a throne-like setting. The bride started out
in a white gown. After awhile she left to change into a dark blue gown.
While they were gone, the party continued, people danced, so you didn't even miss them. They
re-entered in the new gown. After awhile they disappeared again and she re-entered
in a red gown. Then a fuchsia gown. Each of these gowns
represented a different region of Morocco. The most unusual
and ceremonial was the green and gold representing Fez. The
bride and groom were lifted up on chairs on platforms and
carried around. At some point, tables of 8 were set up and we were served dinner by waiters who
came out carrying silver trays of tagines held high which were
then placed in the center of each table. At another interval,
waiters put on a tea ceremony. Sweet mint tea is the national
drink and it is ceremoniously poured from silver tea pots in
long streams by raising the pot as high as they can reach.
After they circled around performing this, they served everybody
tea in little Moroccan tea glasses that are something like a
small juice glass to us. Then the waiters came swirling around
with trays of cookies. They carry these silver trays high on
their flat palms and it's very showy. Then they lower it to
serve each guest. They had 9 different variety of cookies each
on separate trays. The bride appeared last in a second
(different) white gown. At another interval they
had a professional belly dance show. They danced all around the
bridal couple and then just danced. It all went on until dawn.

The henna party the night before was in Nawal's parents' home, and a large gathering was
there, mostly family. One of the boys dj'ed the music and there
was dancing there as well. A very festive time.
We didn't expect it to be like this. Moroccans are either
of Arab or Berber origin. Nawal's family is Berber. It could
be that those of Arabic origin are more fundamental about the
Islamic religion and less inclined to have their pictures taken,
dancing, etc. We danced and they belly-danced!

It was the most amazing wedding I have ever been to. It was
other-worldly. Every minute you were there you knew you
were in a place far, far away! It was truly an experience of a
lifetime. Americans rarely get inside a Moroccan wedding, and
we were not only invited inside but treated very special and
preferentially. I knew we were joining with a new family, but I was not prepared
for the love that poured out. They are very warm and loving
people.

After the wedding we spent a few days on the beach near Casablanca. Still didn't get to Fez
or back to Marrakech like I wanted to but that will have to be another trip. Not being
able to speak the language makes it difficult to get around by ourselves.

This was long but it was such a rare and unique experience, I wanted to share it with you and
record my memories. Pictures of the webbing are in theAlbum Family Photos
section of the website.